The final form of my 2nd postdoc paper with the Bassler Lab! Turns out our favorite quorum-sensing phage isn’t a one-off, but rather a member of a globally dispersed family of phages that sense a universal autoinducer. #phagesky #microsky journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

A family of linear plasmid phages that detect a quorum-sensing autoinducer exists in multiple bacterial species | mBio

The discovery of quorum-sensing responsive linear plasmid phages has transformed understanding of phage-bacterial interactions by demonstrating inter-domain chemical communication. To date, however, e...

journals.asm.org

Finally got my dissertation artwork tattooed (art by @fsantoriello.bsky.social) They're super adorable, based on the Ramones and the colors are the seasons since my work was seasonal changed in wastewater microbiome (red-summer, orange-fall, blue-winter spring-green)

New short story from my postdoc in the Bassler lab is up on bioRxiv! Turns out our favorite quorum sensing responsive phage VP882 is a member of a larger family of phages that is distributed across multiple bacterial species and can eavesdrop on a universally conserved autoinducer. #PhageSky 🦠🧫

bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · last yr.

A family of linear plasmid phages that detect a quorum-sensing autoinducer exists in multiple bacterial species https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.30.667625v1

This is a very good essay if you, like me, have been grappling with the changing world and what it all means and where we're going. Despite the title and heavy topic, it's actually more hopeful than most things (while still being real). rojospinks.substack.com/p/how-i-beca...

How I became 'collapse aware'

And started to imagine what comes next

rojospinks.substack.com

We’re excited to advertise the Microbial Friends and Foes REU program! Please share info with your undergrads, for 10 weeks paid research experience at Cornell. Apps due on Feb 1. @heatherfeaga.bsky.social cihmid.cornell.edu/academics-pr...

Civic duty done! Now I guess I run a gel and dissociate or something.

Happy to share our work that's now online in Nature Microbiology: Gamma-Mobile-Trio systems are mobile elements rich in bacterial defensive and offensive tools. If you're interested in Anti-phage, T6SS, Vibrio, or MGE then this is for you. 🦠 rdcu.be/dXMwQ

Gamma-Mobile-Trio systems are mobile elements rich in bacterial defensive and offensive tools

Nature Microbiology - GMT-containing genomic islands in Vibrio parahaemolyticus and other diverse bacteria serve as a stockpile of immune and anti-phage defence systems, antibiotic-resistance genes...

rdcu.be

Today I will be doing my first western blot since 2020 (which is when I did my first ever western blot). Pray for me.

Fun fact: We have been in the seventh cholera pandemic since 1961, and it's still going strong. Global cholera deaths are surging, WHO says www.cidrap.umn.edu/cholera/glob...

Global cholera deaths are surging, WHO says

cidrap.umn.edu

Trippy phage #sciart #MicroSky 🦠

Another one. Dagger phage #sciart #MicroSky 🦠

Artist, QRP your 2 sides.

Sajan@planetsmudge.bsky.social · 2y ago

Artists, QRP your 2 sides

🚨We are also hiring a postdoc to work on our newly funded Lyme disease phage project at Montana State! Are you a spirochetologist interested in phage biology? Come work with us in beautiful Bozeman, MT! Apply here: jobs.montana.edu/postings/43811 🧫🧪🦠

Patrick R. Secor@prsecor.bsky.social · 2y ago

🚨We're hiring a lab manager/research scientist! Come work with us at Montana State University in beautiful Bozeman, MT We are a phage lab with diverse projects related to infectious disease, check us out here: patsecor.wixsite.com/mysite-1 Apply here: jobs.montana.edu/postings/43723 🧫🧪🦠

Welcome refugees from X! Follow microbiologists and more in the @binningsingletons.com and Friends Starter Pack! go.bsky.app/H5k2p2g

It’s been a couple months, but I never posted about it. The final form of my first postdoc paper is out! Really excited to keep digging into this whacky phage that we love so much. #MicroSky 🦠 journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...

The LuxO-OpaR quorum-sensing cascade differentially controls Vibriophage VP882 lysis-lysogeny decision making in liquid and on surfaces

Author summary Bacteria in nature often exist in surface-associated communities including sessile biofilms and highly motile swarms. Thus, bacteriophages can encounter their hosts in structured commun...

journals.plos.org

Let’s keep it going. Death head phage #2 #sciart

If anyone is feeling like an imposter today…I present you with this thing. I am a postdoc who has been doing PCR for 12 years. Sometimes it just be like that.🧪

It’s been a year since I’ve posted new art on the internet. Let’s get back at it. Death head phage #1

New! a couple of cool bacteriophages in ink on yupo (poly paper) artologica.etsy.com 🧪🐡🦠

Nobody tells you just how sweaty Lexapro is gonna make you.

New preprint from my postdoc with Bonnie Bassler! We show that phage VP882 responds to different host factors depending on the environmental context of the infected host, highlighting the need to study phage-bacteria interactions in relevant contexts to get the full picture. #MicroSky 🦠

bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 2y ago

The LuxO-OpaR quorum-sensing cascade differentially controls Vibriophage VP882 lysis-lysogeny decision making in liquid and on surfaces https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.02.587679v1

If you see this, post something toothy (Some oldies of mine)

Lord Diana 🇺🇦@lordsovorn.bsky.social · 2y ago

If you see this, post something toothy (couldn't choose one)

The Genewiz pickup person is the molbio equivalent of the tooth fairy.

Rude of StoryGraph to call me out like that.

Very happy I decided to play, and make something like nothing I’ve ever made before. ‘Blue Light’ (2023)

Saimi Hanma ⚔️ サイミ@saimihanma.bsky.social · 3y ago

Quick, post a bug on a plant, go #Invertebrate

Challenging myself to “just draw” for a bit. Put my markers on the table and decided to see what happens. #art #wip #pen #ink #marker

Evil Dead Rise is the wildest version of white people shit in the franchise so far. In the first movie they find the Necronomicon in a basement. Easy mistake. In this one they find it in a tomb covered in medallions under 1000 hanging crucifixes inside a sealed bank vault. What could go wrong?

I’ve been sick for the last 11 days, so I’m having a quiet Halloweekend movie marathon. So far I’ve done Scream 1-3, Midsommar, Us, and Hereditary. Barbarian is on deck. Taking suggestions.

We’ve been over this, but I have a love/hate relationship with the fact that this is a balanced rotor.